


Rivals

by starrystarrytrouble



Category: Open Heart (Visual Novels)
Genre: Ethan tries to quit, F/M, Friends to Enemies, Jealousy, Leland is ambiguous, Rivalry, Sienna is a cinammon roll, Slow Burn, Tobias is ambiguous
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-21 10:08:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30020145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starrystarrytrouble/pseuds/starrystarrytrouble
Summary: Everyone at Edenbrook is talking about Tobias and Ethan. Multiple POVs.OH3 ch4 continuation and rewrite.
Relationships: Ethan Ramsey/Main Character (Open Heart)
Kudos: 12





	Rivals

Edenbrook woke to a perfect turquoise sky and the sweet glow of sunlight parting fresh white clouds. 

It was the most dazzling of mornings the weather report on the car radio said when Aurora drove to work. And now, seated in her aunt’s new plush office with a croissant in her hand, she felt utterly content.

“So how do you feel about Tobias being at Edenbrook now?”

She dropped her pastry onto the plate. When Eve told her Carrick had joined, she’d felt a slight pang of apprehension. His way of doing things didn’t really fit the Edenbrook mould. And now the whole hospital was gossiping about the new arrival, everyone was asking her what he was like. 

She was trying to stay as neutral as possible, especially to the swooning nurses who were running a poll on who was hotter, Carrick or Ramsey. But with Harper, she could be honest. 

“Fine, I haven’t seen him yet. He can be reckless, but he was just my old boss. It’s way weirder for Eve. Must be strange being in the same team as your boyfriend and his biggest rival.”

Aurora clapped her hand over her mouth.

Shit shit shit. The panic rose through her throat as she remembered that they’d never spoken about this before. What if her aunt didn’t actually know Eve was Ramsey-official now? 

“Sorry Aunt Harper, I…”

Pouring muesli into her bowl, Harper smiled.

“Relax, I know she’s seeing Ethan. It wasn’t exactly a surprise, he’s hardly subtle.”

Aurora smirked back, “Saw it coming too huh. Eve said you had spoke to her, talked about being on the team?”

The smile didn’t fade from Harper’s eyes. 

“Yeah we did. I always liked her and… I’ve known Ethan a really long time. She’s good for him.”

The two women shared a small smile and Aurora took a sip of her latte. How did Bloom’s new coffee machines always get the temperature so perfect? 

“So what’s the deal with Tobias and Ethan,” she asked.

Harper rolled her eyes and leaned into her chair. 

“Ethan’s never spoken about it so I’m not sure but if yesterday was anything to go by? It’s going to be tense.”

*  
Sienna swirled the spoon around her pumpkin soup wide-eyed and beaming. It was getting harder for the roommates to see each other in the hospital under their busy final year schedules but this lunch was everything she’d hoped for. 

Especially now she was catching up on what Eve and Jackie had been up to. 

“You actually broke into Bloom’s office? The guy who owns the whole hospital?” Bryce asked, throwing his palm open for a high five. 

“You’ve known me and Eve for two years now, how does that still surprise you Lahela?” Jackie said, meeting his hand with a loud snap. 

“Listen, nothing surprises me about you,” Bryce leaned in with a grin, “but I thought being Chief Resident would keep you on the straight and narrow.”

“What’s the point of having power if you can’t use it for the occasional heist?” Eve smiled, fiddling with a french fry. 

The table settled into quiet chatter and the bustle of the crowded cafeteria blocked out Sienna’s thoughts. She eased into her plastic chair and bathed in the sight of her friends all together. The year ahead felt frightening, but they’d get through it if they had each other.

“So what’s it like working with Ethan and Tobias? Don’t they hate each other?” Jackie asked casually. 

All eyes were fixed on Eve.

She shook her head softly and sunk into her chair with a small sigh.

“That bad huh?” Elijah grinned.

“Is it true Ethan tried to quit when he heard Carrick joined the team?”

Eve sat up with a start and stared at Bryce.

“How do you know that?”

“I know everything,” he said with a delicious grin.

“I’m surprised Ethan hasn’t forgiven him. You know, after Dr Carrick came with his whole team to try to save you and Raf…when you were attacked.” Sienna’s eyes glistened softly in the sunlight and she clutched at the edge of her dress. It was a time she didn’t like to think about.

“Yeah, he saved your life Valentine. Thought your boyfriend might be a bit grateful,” Jackie teased.

“You should’ve seen Tobias in that lab, Eve,” Elijah added, “He really wanted to help you.”

“He wanted to help Ethan too.” Sienna was shaking now, the memories that tumbled back were too harsh and with her chin raised, she gazed directly at Eve helplessly. “When Ethan stayed with you all night, Tobias was asking how you and Raf were, but he wanted updates on Ethan too. I think he knows…what you mean to Ethan?”

Eve smiled softly and squeezed her best friend’s hand, the warmth slipping over Sienna offering small tendrils of comfort. 

“Speak of the devil,” Elijah grinned over at Eve as a tall attending walked in and scanned the room impatiently. 

She was out of her chair and with him in seconds. 

Sienna watched Ethan’s face soften as Eve approached him. He placed a hand at her back and ushered her towards the coffee queue as Eve pointed back towards them. 

Whenever she saw them together, Sienna felt a wave of hopefulness crest at her chest. If you were around real love then maybe someday it would find you too, she thought. 

“Anyone want to guess what they’re talking about?” Elijah asked.

Bryce straightened up, and with a little cough, alternated between his sternest and most delicate voice.

“I got this. Ramsey’s saying ‘Eve, no I absolutely will not sit with your friends,’ and Eve’s saying ‘But please?’ Ethan’s going ‘No, not after that scalpel jockey spiked my punch with tequila last weekend’ and Eve’s saying ‘For me?’ and well look at that…”

Bryce pointed over to Ethan who looked over at them with a begrudging nod and started coming over with Eve.

“Told you,” the surgeon said smugly looking around at his friends. All of them were staring at him.

“Did you just do an impression of Ethan and Eve?”

“Good huh?” he said with a proud wink. 

“What is wrong with you? That sounded nothing like them!” Jackie threw a pea at him. 

Out of the corner of her eye, in between peals of laughter, Sienna recognised another figure at the end of the cafeteria.

She watched Tobias carefully as he stared at Ethan and Eve. There was the smallest trace of a smirk on his handsome face.

*  
It was late afternoon and the waning sun gave a final warm glow on the perfect late summer Boston skyline. 

He wouldn’t get used to it, thought Leland Bloom, the views of the city on the 7th floor still rivalled the finest sunsets he’d ever seen. Sunsets he’d paid more for than this entire hospital cost him.

He walked past the Diagnostic’s Office and saw two figures inside. For the first time, he hesitated to walk in.

The intimacy of their stance pulled at something he’d buried deep inside. 

Ramsey was sitting at his desk, a sleepy relaxed look clouding his usually tense face. And Dr Valentine was perched on the edge of the desk, her fingers interlocked with his, and her other hand at his shoulder. 

Bloom thought back to yesterday, when he’d paged everyone to this same office and revealed Carrick as his latest wildcard to rile Ethan. 

“What is he doing here.” Ethan had stared straight at Carrick aghast.

Ramsey’s voice was the typical fierce demand Bloom was getting tired of. That man seemed to forget who signed his paychecks. 

“Nice to see you too Ethan,” Tobias smirked.

“Absolutely not, I refuse to have him on my team.”

Leland remembered his own response to the attending’s petulance with a burst of pride. He took particular pleasure in giving Ethan his coldest glare.

“Oh, you will.”

“Then I’ll quit.”

“That is your choice Dr Ramsey,” Leland had said.

“Fine.”

Bloom remembered that moment. The edge in the attending’s face, the sharp lines of his jaw set tight in raw passion and sheer insolence. Ethan had even taken half a step towards the door, and for a second Leland was sure he’d won. 

That was until a voice cut through the tension with a gravity that could recentre the moon. 

“Stop. Ethan’s not quitting.”

Dr Valentine placed a hand on Ramsey’s arm and with it, commanded the whole room to silence. 

She wasn’t asking, wasn’t pleading, oh no, she was telling. 

And the impressed smirk on the illustrious Dr Emery’s face told Leland that he was in for a treat with this resident. 

Bloom shook off the memory and focused back on the sight in front of him. 

Was it really eavesdropping if it was your own hospital, he wondered. No, common sense told him, but then the way Valentine ran her hands through Ethan’s hair made him, for a moment, feel a slight pang of guilt. 

Guilt that faded as soon as he heard Ethan’s next words. 

“You should have let me quit. He’ll be insufferable.”

Eve dropped her fingers to Ethan’s cheek and Bloom listened in closely.

“Tobias isn’t that bad. And Edenbrook needs you, I need you. How else are we going to fight whatever the hell is going on? What’s that saying, keep your friends close and your enemies…”

Ethan sighed and placed a hand around her waist drawing her nearer to him.

“And which one am I, friend or enemy?” he muttered.

“Well I keep you pretty close, don’t I?” she said with a mischievous grin that made Ethan chuckle softly.

“Wherever would I be without you, Eve?”

“Probably at home, unemployed,” she smirked.

Ethan laughed again, utterly relaxed and Leland couldn’t help but feel a slight tug at his own lips at her dryness.

“I meant what I said earlier, I always feel calm around you,” Ethan said.

“Pretty sure I have a way to make you even calmer.”

With a giggle, Dr Valentine was in Ethan’s lap, her hands around his neck, bringing him in for a heated kiss. 

Leland didn’t need to hear anymore. 

His heart softened. Ramsey was damn lucky to have a woman like that in his life. Focused and determined. Someone he loved and trusted who grounded him and didn’t take his crap. Love like that was hard to find and impossible to buy. 

A love that could last a lifetime.

He peered in to the outline of the lovers embracing and his mind raced to Caroline. His love, the Dr Valentine in his own life. 

His eyes grew steely as any vulnerability he’d allowed himself to feel, vanished.

He would fix Caroline. At any cost. 

*

Moonlight filtered in through the 7th floor windows and Tobias Carrick ran a hand through his hair, exhausted.

It was getting late and although he was no slacker, Ramsey’s work ethic was gonna seriously mess up his social life, Tobias thought as he poured over patient notes with the rest of the team.

Day 2 on the Edenbrook Diagnostic’s Team and he was seriously starting to wonder if the fight was going to be worth it. The doubled paycheck was nowhere near as tempting as the chance to get one over his old friend but it was 10pm and they’d made no progress on their latest patient.

Of course, it must be easy for Ethan to work late when the woman he was seeing was working right alongside him.

He noticed the way her hand kept brushing Ethan’s and the tiny way his mouth crinkled up in the corners each time. He even recognised the moment she put her hand on Ethan’s thigh and Ethan tried to hide a light flush as she smiled sinfully.

Eve was a force of nature, Tobias knew that from the day he’d met her at the softball game. The way she battered into Landry and started a fight between 20 doctors didn’t escape him. She was a troublemaker and he liked it. In another world, they could’ve had fun.

Lots of it. 

But what really interested him was the way Ethan looked at her. And kept looking at her. 

That same look brought him to Edenbrook after the Senator attack. Sure, he wanted desperately to solve the puzzle and get the credit for helping Ramsey’s colleagues. Whether the game was Tobias vs science or Tobias vs death, he liked to win. But there was more to it than that.

They weren’t friends anymore, but he’d never seen Ethan look at anyone the way he looked at the dark-haired resident. He might hate him but a part of Tobias still missed him and after everything, that was the part that always seemed to shout loudest. 

He tapped his pen against the desk rapidly and watched as Eve slid a note over to Ethan. 

Her eyes were utterly wicked and that flush that was creeping up on Ethan’s face darkened as she bit her rosy lip and turned back to her files innocently. 

And then Ethan glanced over from Eve onto him. His blue eyes a vivid sapphire as they narrowed.

He saw it straightaway, crisp recognition as Ethan realised Tobias was looking at Eve. Only there was something else there hidden in the depths of Ramsey’s irises. A flash of concern, a wild glint, the faint trace of emotion he recognised from their college days. 

Irritation, maybe.

Discomfort, definitely, but also…

Jealousy. 

He grinned back at Ethan, amazed at how clueless his former friend could be. 

The night raced on, but suddenly he felt renewed, a fresh wave of energy surging over him at the Valentine-sized chink appearing in Ethan’s armour.

This was going to be fun.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading and visiting Ruby’s rewrite trashcan week 4: Tobias edition.


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